Bust of Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott began to write professionally in her teens when her father, utopian theorist Bronson Alcott, left the family in dire financial straits. She published her first book, Flower Fables, in 1854. After serving as a nurse during the Civil War, she produced the memoir Hospital Sketches in 1863. Asked by her publisher to write a book for girls, Alcott drew upon her own family experiences to write Little Women (1868). This heartwarming novel, chronicling the lives of the four March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - was a success at its publication and remains an American literally classic.